Methods for development processing a silver halide photographic light-sensitive material usually includes washing and stabilization steps. In recent years it has been increasingly desired to decrease the amount of water used in such methods from the viewpoints of the protection of the environments, the conservation of water resources, and the reduction of production costs. For example, S. R. Goldwasser, Water Flow Rates in Immersion-Washing of Motion Picture Film, SMPTE, Vol. 64, pp. 248-253 (May 1955) discloses a method for reducing the amount of water used by countercurrently passing the water through a plurality of washing tanks. This method is employed in various automatic developing machines as an effective means for the reduction of water. It has been revealed, however, that the method suffers from several disadvantages. The main disadvantage is that various precipitates and floating matter are formed in the water, because the water becomes very unstable when contaminated with iron ions from the bleaching step and thiosulfates from the fixing step during the processing, and, furthermore, if the amount of water used is greatly decreased, its residence time is inevitably lengthened.
The above problem also arises in the case that the washing step is replaced by a stabilization step, and also in the case that a washing step is followed by a stabilization step.
These precipitates and floating matter stick to the light-sensitive material, and cause the plugging or contamination of a filter of an automatic developing machine, thereby producing various problems.
In order to overcome the above problems, many methods of preventing precipitation have been proposed. For example, L. E. West, Phot. Sci., and Eng., Vol. 19, No. 6 (1965), "Water Quality Criteria", discloses the addition of chelating agents and germicides. Japanese Patent Application (OPI) Nos. 8542/82, 105145/83, and 157244/82 (the term "OPI" as used herein means a "published unexamined Japanese patent application" disclose the addition of various antifungal agents such as thiazolylbenzimidazole compounds and isothiazolone compounds. These antifungal agents, however, are not satisfactory for practical use because of low solubility, poor safety, or insufficient effect in preventing the precipitation. A method involving adding various chelating agents is described, for example, in Japanese Patent Application (OPI) Nos. 8542/82, 58143/82, 132146/82, and 18631/83. These chelating agents, however, are not sufficiently effective, and, furthermore, exert adverse influences on the storage stability of images; in other words, they fail to produce satisfactory results. A method of using sulfites in combination with chelating agents is described in Japanese Patent Application (OPI) Nos. 97530/82, 88738/84, and 88739/84, but also in this case, the effect is not sufficiently satisfactory.